Swing Time: A Novel

and my feet, in sympathy with the music, tapped

She dressed for a future not yet with us but which she expected to arrive.

In Tracey’s home, disappointment in the man was ancient history: they had never really had any hope in him, for he had almost never been at home.

Together Mr. Booth and I considered what it would be like to love the east, west, north

But then, at the same moment, I felt we both saw it; the downturned mouth, the sad eyes. I

to, as if the very word “baby” was a kind of accelerant.

And now—as if we were both trying to get on a see-saw at the same time—neither of us pressed too hard and a delicate equilibrium was allowed to persist.

Long before it became her career my mother had a political mind: it was in her nature to think of people collectively.

My childhood took place in the widening gap.